The Storyteller
by Rocklaarts
Summary: A bunch of one-shots with semi-plot line on my take of the origins of the Labyrinth J/S onesided J/oc Toby/Oc


**_'Ello and thank you for reading. First off this I do not own The Labyrinth or any of the characters. Second, This fanfic sometimes refers to goblins and thier stories in Brian Fround's and Terry Jones's 'The Goblins Companion' so most of the goblins and some story ideas are not mine. Third, Thank you again for reading and please review._**

"I'm so bored," a long sign escapes Toby, the Goblin Prince. He was new to the Labyrinth and had not made many friends. All the people he usually talk to or played with were all busy making enragements for the Goblin King's wedding. All except her, The Storyteller.

"Where is Sarah and Jareth, Storyteller," Toby asked as he spotted her.

"I don't know. They are probably still asleep, young princeling," The Storyteller remarked as she looked up from her needle and thread. She had a small smile on her face because she was guessing they were doing more than 'just sleeping' in Their Majesty's Royal Chambers. She kept her thoughts to herself and went back to patching up a ripped in overly patched up coat.

"Well, why don't we go and wake them up," Toby said with his hands on his hips as he looked up at The Storyteller as she sat on one of the many stone walls of Labyrinth.

"No, let's let them 'sleep', shall we? They need it," The Storyteller started out, thinking of ways to distract the 9-year-old boy. "I know, why don't you come up here and let me tell you a story. You have not heard me tell a story, yet."

"Ok," Toby replied. As if the Labyrinth knew what was going on, brinks started to shift and poke out of the stone wall forming stairs. Toby climb up those stairs and sat down next to the Storyteller. "What's the story going to be about?"

"About the Labyrinth," The Storyteller began. "_Once upon a time, when the Underground was still very, very young…"_

…_a red stone stood in the middle of burin waste land. Nothing grew there. Nothing lived there. Nothing died there. There was only day and night and that red stone. Time passed and still nothing happens. As the rest of the Underground grew and thrived with magic of the sidhe, no one ever ventured to that waste land. People said it was a cured land with un-tamed magic. _

_Then one day a lone goblin appears on the horizon. He is wounded and black blood flows heavy from his neck. His name was Luerk. Not much is said about Luerk the Goblin for his story is a sad one indeed…_

"What's so sad about it," asked Toby.

"Well, I don't know. The story was outlawed by one of the Goblin King's because the tale was so sad that the goblins would cry for years after hearing it only once. The story is lost now. There are snippets of his tale saying he fell in love with a maiden not of the goblin world and that he came home one day and found that his mother made her into cauliflower cheese. There is also a story that his great sorrow was a fatal laundry bill and rusty chest armor," explained the Storyteller. "Whatever type of story Luerk had…"

…_He had suffered great tragedy and only knew of great sorrow. Even to this day, no one knows why he travel to that burin place. He looks up, wiping the sweat and blood from his brow, sees the red stone in the middle of the waste land. He travels across the jagged rocks and sinking sands towards the red stone. He walks and stumbles on it, using it as support. Clinging to it for dear life._

_He is tired. Tired of walking. Tired of feeling. Tired of living. He collapses. Dead._

_Goblins, like the sidhe, will die if they grow tired of living. But unlike the sidhe, they don't fade. Their bodies are of the earth. The black blood from Luerk's wounds flows heavily onto the soil and the red stone. Three days pass, and all of Luerk's blood is soaked into the stone and soil and poor Luerk's body is nothing but dust in the wind. Then suddenly the ground shacks and quakes. A boulder grows out from the ground. Then another and another. Boulders, large and small. Stone surfaces that began popping up with no plan, making pathways and roads with them. _

_Time goes on. Trees, which grew out of the stone surfaces, start forming a forest, but there was no water to support the trees. So out from the ground came a fresh water puddle. Over time, that puddle became a lake and that lake became a small fresh water sea. Tiny streams of fresh water ran through the forest. Whenever a tiny streams ran into one of the paths or boulders, it would change to make a land formed bridge. _

_As time went on, more goblins came from over the horizon; escaping the sidhe and the useless bloodshed…_

"I thought Goblins liked to fight," Toby questioned the Storyteller.

"Yes, but there is a difference. A goblin would fight for itself and his chickens, but when it comes to land a goblin will not fight for it," The Storyteller answered. "First sidhe wars were about land. The land was first being divided by the two sidhe courts, the Seelie and Unseelie. The Goblins were getting caught in the crossfire, just like most of the other races of the Underground…"

_After the goblins, came all sorts of creature also that were caught in-between the First Wars of the Sidhe came to the not-so wasted waste land. They too did not want to choose a court or side to be on, which both courts were demanding of them. They settled on the land and the land started made them homes. Stone house, stone hearths, and stone wells started popping up from the ground. The land shaped the stones into things the outsiders would recognize. The boulders became walls to protect the people inside from wars outside the lands borders. _

_Over time, the walls grew and grew as the conflict of the outside world becomes more violent. The walls swallowed the forest and the sea, reaching the far edges of the land. The pathways became more complex and trickier to keep its people safe. It became a labyrinth. It became the Labyrinth._

"And that's the story of the Labyrinths origins," The Storyteller finished. She looked down at her companion, who had his face scrunched up in confusion "Any questions?"

"But who created the Labyrinth," Toby asked.

"You could say Luerk the Goblin did. That is what people who live outside the Labyrinth say. But that is not really true, is it? The Labyrinth created itself. The magic was always there it just needed something to set it off. In your magic lessons, has His Majesty explained the power in blood," she asked Toby.

"Um…oh yeah 'Blood is life. Life is magic. Magic is blood.'" Toby replies like he is reciting something. "So, Luerk's blood was the thing that set the Labyrinth off."

"The Labyrinth is what we call it. His Majesty and many other believe that the magic that made the Labyrinth has a different name. A name long forgotten since the time when the Aboveground and the Underground were one," The Storyteller said as she spotted the soon-to-be Goblin Queen walking towards them. Sir Didymus, her ever faithful knight, trailing behind her on Ambrosius.

"The Aboveground and the Underground were one? What was it called? Why did they split," Toby cried out as Sarah came walking up to them.

"Toby, get down from there. Its breakfast. Let's go inside and eat," Sarah said as Toby climbed down the brick stairs.

"Aww, but Sarah, I want to hear another story," Toby said reached the bottom last step.

"It's alright, young princeling, I will tell it to you another time," The Storyteller said from above them. She stood up on the stone wall and put on her long patchwork coat that she had finished mending. She picked up her long forgotten hat and placed it on her head. "Go and have breakfast with His Majesty."

"Hey Sarah, can't Storyteller join us," Toby begged Sarah. Sarah hesitated. She was between a rock and a hard place. She did not wish The Storyteller to be close to Jareth, but she didn't want to disappoint Toby.

"Again, young princeling, it is alright, but thank you for the offer," The Storyteller said after seeing Sarah's displeased look on her face. She waved goodbye to Toby and started walking along the Labyrinths wall.


End file.
